Just days after it suffered a series of thumping defeats to Nigel Farage’s pro-Brexit Reform UK Party in elections across the UK, Labour is again at loggerheads over Brexit.
The party’s culture secretary Lisa Nandy has hit out at would-be leadership contender Wes Streeting, accusing him of re-opening the ‘Brexit wars’ within the party.
Here we look at where would-be successors to Sir Keir Starmer stand on the European Union and what they have said in the past.
Wes Streeting
Even as the former health secretary announced he would stand in a Labour leadership contest he made his opening pitch to become prime minister a call for Britain to rejoin the European Union.
When it came to Brexit, leaving the EU was a “catastrophic mistake”, he said.
The UK should be ambitious for a new special relationship with the bloc, he added, arguing that Britain’s future lies with Europe “and one day back in” the EU.
“It has left us less wealthy, less powerful, and less in control than at any point since before the Industrial Revolution,” Mr Streeting said.
“The biggest economic opportunity we have is on our doorstep. We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe – and one day back in the European Union,” he added.
However, he made clear that this could only happen if a new mandate was secured, such as at a general election.
Andy Burnham
Mr Streeting’s stance on Brexit has put pressure on the leading contender to replace Sir Keir, if there is a contest, Andy Burnham.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester wants to be PM, but must first win a seat in Parliament in a crunch by-election in Makerfield, which voted to leave the EU in 2016.
On Saturday, allies of Mr Burnham were reported to have suggested he was not going to be “going big on Europe” in his pitch to voters there.
He told last year’s Labour Party conference he wanted the UK to rejoin the bloc, saying, “I hope it happens in my lifetime… People prosper more when they’re part of unions. That’s my belief, and I’ll say it clearly.”
But Mr Streeting’s call meant he was asked about Brexit in an interview on Saturday night. Asked if he was in favour of rejoining the EU, he told ITV: “I’ve said in the long-term there is a case for that, but I’m not advocating that in this byelection.”
Angela Rayner
The former deputy prime minister has rejected revisiting Brexit.
She told ITV recently that the country should not go back to debating whether we are “in or out.”
But she did say that the government had to address the challenges that departure has caused, especially for businesses.
She said: “Many businesses are saying that it’s been a challenge, that Brexit and the way in which it was implemented has challenged their ability to be competitive to get access to the EU market and therefore we should be addressing those challenges, not going back to the old argument – are we in or out.”
Ms Rayner campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
After the result of the vote, she said that although she was “fiercely pro-EU” she was “also a democrat”.
